Overtime an issue in budget
BY TOYNETT HALL
Staff Writer

HOWELL - A vote by the Township Council on July 10 passed an amendment which approved police overtime in the 2007 municipal budget.

The potential of negatively affecting the availability of services for residents was the overriding factor which swayed a majority of council members on the question.

Deputy Mayor Robert Walsh, Councilman Michael Howell and Councilwoman Angela Dalton voted for the overtime budget. Mayor Joseph DiBella voted no. Councilwoman Cynthia Schomaker was absent.

According to DiBella, overtime keeps growing and growing and other things should be taken into account.

"We need to make sure people can afford to pay their mortgage, pay their taxes, put groceries on the table," he said. "What about the seniors who are on fixed incomes, the single parents, those are the people we have to keep in mind as well."

According to Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Filiatreault, the 2006 budget for police overtime was $225,000. The actual money paid out for police overtime in 2006 was $413,060.

In 2007, the police department requested $480,000 for overtime and the

council appropriated that full amount.

In examining the figures, DiBella said he "cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel."

"I will not let anyone tell me that I do not care about the people in this town and I don't want to protect them. I have voted to hire new police officers, to put police vehicles on the street and to give them all the equipment the police have ever asked for and are entitled to," the mayor said. However, "when it comes to this overtime issue we have to do something, because to just accept the status quo is just rolling it along. The average overtime for the last six years has been $378,000. The average for the last 12 years was $347,000.

"I have been consistent on the issue of overtime for the five years I have been here. Almost every year it gets worse. It is just not comprehensible to the average person who lives in this community, who pays their taxes, to think that this can continue to go on," DiBella said.

Resident James O'Brien expressed his view, saying, "I do not ever see you avoiding overtime and to be honest with you, if I am ever involved with a Howell police officer, the last thing I want to hear [a police officer say] is 'I'm sorry, wait here, my shift is over, somebody will come out and pick up where I left off.' I do not ever want to be put in that situation. I do not want my family or my neighbors to be put in that situation. I want an officer to have authority to stay with me until I am safe, comfortable and the situation is resolved. If it means we have to spend some overtime money, then spend some overtime money."